Developer: Flight School Studio
Publisher: Flight School Studio
Platform: PC, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: PC
Creature in the Well – Review
Designed and published by Flight School Studio, ‘Creature in the Well’ brings a lot of unique gameplay and graphical elements into one package. This top-down pinball-like puzzle hack-and-slash dungeon crawler has a lot to offer. This gutsy combination of genres can take a wrong turn quickly, by wanting too much of everything, but Flight School Studio has managed to balance the game out well and give us a nice, artistic looking and sounding game that will not bore quickly.
Story
You start out as a so-called BOT-C unit waking up from a sort-of hibernation. You are given the quest of restoring the power and functionality of an old factory-like facility which is taken over by a dark and mysterious creature. Your goal is to restore life to a sandstorm plagued village with scared inhabitants that hide in their houses (who sometimes talk to you). The dialogue is all text but would be nice if it was voiced over, which is a bit disappointing because the rest of the game is well thought through.
As you progress through the different parts of this factory-like facility, pieces of story and encounters are fed to you to keep you motivated through the storyline. Slowly but surely the reasoning why, how and the history of the facility unveil themselves. Other than that the story isn’t Oscar-worthy, but it does the job well. Bit by bit, the reasoning why the creature decided to take over the facility and what happened before the creature took overcomes to light. This interesting recurrence of bits of story distracts you from the sometimes borderline repetitive gameplay.
Graphics
The graphics of Creature in the Well are pretty to look at. Taking a mix of cel-shaded bright colors and sharp blacked edges and adding a touch of an artistic painting style and camera angles to please the eyes. This sometimes makes you think that you are progressing through an interactive art piece. The character design is pretty simple, but the whole game is pretty simple in design.
The facility has a number of different sectors that all have their own color theme, and vary from dark caves to high tech pipeline-filled hallways. The lighting effects of your weapons and energy globes are nicely done and never really get boring, and the vivid colors of things that can hurt you really stand out, giving it that extra sense of danger when you encounter them.
Sound
The music in this game is like the graphics, artistic and pretty calm, really complimenting the graphics and style of the game. The sound effects are nice and sometimes funny, like when you get the frying pan, you get a nice bang when you hit an energy globe. It all comes together, though the music can get a bit dull at moments, those moments are few and far between. Even though the audio of the game is fitting, it can be underwhelming at times, especially when looking at the encounters with the creature.
Gameplay
Creature in the Well is a top-down pinball hack-and-slash dungeon crawler where your goal is to hit power nodes with globes of energy, which you can control with your weapons. You have 2 weapon types, one for powering your globes and one to aim and strike them where you want them to go.
The nodes can vary in size, function, and timing which gives Creature in the Well a nice challenge at times. You progress the game through different chambers with a new challenge behind every door. Some challenges eventually give you a small reward, while others put your skills to the test. Sometimes the controls and mechanics collide with each other, but that is nothing to hold you back from having a good time.
The gameplay can get repetitive at times, but the weapons can give cool or handy perks, like slow motion or a guiding laser which gives enough variety to avoid that if you want. These perks often come in very handy because some chambers can get quite though with timed targets or sequences.
Depending on how much weapons, capes and other stuff you want to collect and how far you want to explore, Creature in the Well takes about ten hours to complete.
Conclusion
Creature in the Well ticks a lot of genre boxes which gives the game a unique flavor. The variety of weapons and challenges can keep you well entertained throughout the adventure. All this is accompanied by soothing music and a unique art style. Flight School Studio has done a great job of bringing all the different genres, unique sounds and visuals together without getting overwhelming. If you want to try something fresh and challenge yourself with this mix of genres, or just want to play a well thought out game, you will not be disappointed with Creature in the Well.
Creature in the Well - Review,
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